Batman: Arkham Legacy
by fireandice722
Summary: A collection of stories exploring Gotham and the Batfamily after the death of the Batman. Jason, Tim, Dick, Barbara, and other Arkhamverse characters will all have their own stories. New heroes will rise, and new threats will come to try and shake Gotham to its foundations. Formerly named "After Arkham Knight."
1. Chapter 1

As I looked up at the sky, I couldn't help but wonder why the sun had decided that today was the day to shine its rays. Gotham is rarely ever touched by light, but then again, as many would attest, the city could never be normal again. Never could things be the same because he was gone. Bruce Wayne, the Batman, the Dark Knight, is dead, and nobody knows what is to come of the city without their vigilante watching over the streets.

Looking around the cemetery, amongst the couple hundred attendees of the funeral service, are heroes in uniform. Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and numerous other members of the Justice League stand in the sun kissed graveyard, all to mourn the death of the Batman. All the patrons see when they look at me is Nightwing, not Dick Grayson, standing with Robin, not Tim Drake. Red Hood is nowhere in sight, though I'm not surprised, and Oracle had stayed away from the funeral because she no longer had a mask to hide behind.

Despite Barbara and Jason's absence at the funeral service, the turnout was surprising and diverse. As well as Bruce's allies as Batman, there were a lot of business partners of Wayne Industries, the entirety of the GCPD, and a number of socialite friends of Bruce. I even spot Selina nearby, uncomfortable around all the crimefighters, even though she wasn't her wearing her catsuit, opting for a black leather jacket and jeans.

"I'm glad you came," I say, moving to stand next to her.

"I had to. I left so many things unsaid. I wish he had listened to me that night. I wish he had stayed," she says. Though he wasn't sure what she was talking about, I had a general idea of what she was talking about, and I wish any of us could have persuaded him not to confront Jonathan Crane. Tim and James would both rather sacrifice themselves over the exposure of the Batman.

"Bruce has always been stubborn. You shouldn't be too hurt. He never lets me or anyone else in on what he plans. It's normal for him to shut people out," I tell her. She nods but I know what she's hurting. Tim, Barbara, and I were devastated when Bruce died and Wayne Manor was burned to the ground, so I can only imagine how much harder it would be for a woman who probably loved him, even if she was different than him in so many ways. Before she can say anything, everybody's conversations are cut of by a clearing of a throat.

"Hello everyone," Clark says, a microphone in his hand as he addresses everyone. When the funeral was planned, Kent had agreed to speak the parting words so that Tim nor I could not accidentally reveal our identities. "I want to thank all of you who came here today, whether you knew the man we remember today as Bruce Wayne or if you knew him by Batman. I just want to say that even if he was both those titles to me, the one name I can give him is 'one of the world's greatest men.' Bruce Wayne, Batman, was one of the greatest men I ever knew. He could have wasted away all his money and abused his family's power in Gotham, but he didn't. He used all his wealth to make his home as safe as he could, investing in charities and benefits to fund campaigns against crime as Bruce Wayne and he used the rest of the money to grant himself an arsenal for Batman at night. He was, despite what anyone says, one of the world's knights, one of the select few who truly stood for justice, no matter the cost. He even exposed his true identity on public television to save James Gordon and his ally Robin. Bruce Wayne was one of the best men I knew, and standing here today, I know that the world will never be the same without him."

As Clark goes to stand with the rest of the League, the coffin is lowered into the ground, a chrome bat emblem glistening on its lid. The statue above his tombstone is revealed: an ornate bronze statue of Bruce in his Batsuit, his cowl removed and in his hands, held to his stomach, his face emotionless. 'Here lies Gotham's Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne,' reads the epitaph.

As I am about to leave about half an hour later, Superman approaches me. "Nightwing, do you have a moment?"

"Yeah Superman, what is it?" I ask, expecting condolences, but what he says is different.

"I x-rayed the coffin, and there's no body… I think that Bruce is still alive."


	2. Chapter 2

Superman POV

Bruce is alive. I've known him too long to believe that he could have been killed by a seemingly random series of explosions set by an unknown assailant. If there was one thing that I could say about Bruce, it's that he's always prepared for whatever comes his way. He's got a contingency plan for every possibility, so there's no way that he would let Wayne Manor be destroyed so easily.

Nightwing had promptly gone and told Tim and Barbara about what I had noticed, and the three had gone to investigate the wreckage of the manor to see if there was anything left. In the meantime, I am doing investigations of my own; not as a superhero, but rather a concerned reporter from the Daily Planet.

"Clark Kent, Daily Planet. I've been assigned to investigation of Wayne Enterprises by Perry White," I say, flashing my media badge to the security guard at the door of Wayne Tower. With a nod, he opens the door.

"Wait here, I'll call down Mr. Fox to speak to you sir," the receptionist says as I once again repeat what I had said to the security guard.

A few minutes later, the elevator dings and Mr. Fox walks in, clearly having not slept for a long time. "Lucius Fox," he says, shaking my hand. "Please forgive my fatigue. I was not expecting more reporters; after all it's been a couple weeks since Mr. Wayne's funeral. Please follow me to my office," he says, gesturing to the elevator.

When we have entered Lucius's private office, I cut to the chase. "I assume that you helped Bruce design all the gadgets."

"You are correct, though there isn't any news company that really hasn't figured things out," Lucius replies.

"So you knew Bruce well? Knew of both sides?" I inquire. The weapons designer tugs at his collar, somewhat uncomfortable by the line of questioning. "Please, I need your help. I'm one of Bruce's closest friends. I know him too well to believe that he could be killed by bombs planted in his home. _Batman_ wouldn't be killed by something like this."

"A-are you one of them?" Lucius asks, unsure if he should say anything. To answer him, I undo the first three buttons of shirt, revealing the S shield underneath.

"Does that answer your question?" I say. "I trusted you with my identity, as I'm sure that Bruce did so many years ago when the crusade against Gotham began. All I want to do is see if there are any clues as to where he could have went. He isn't dead. I know he isn't, and the emptiness of his coffin confirmed that there was no body to salvage from the ruins of Wayne Manor."

"Very well…" he says, straightening his tie. "What do you want to know?"

"Did he say anything on October 31st? Anything that could help?"

"Nothing that I recall. One of his foes took me hostage, but Bruce took him down, and that was that. He didn't return to Wayne Tower after that," Lucius says.

"Anything seem different about him?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary; he was quite his normal self."

"Do you have any idea where he would have went?"

"No idea, there are a few dozen properties that Bruce could inhabit, though he surely would have told us by now where he would have went."

A few more questions later, I ask if there was anybody who managed to access Bruce's banking accounts, and thankfully this question bears fruit.

"Well, the earliest hours of November 1st saw a complete withdrawal of money from two sub-accounts labeled 'Babel' and 'Shadow Sight,'" Lucius answers.

"Any idea what these two sub-accounts could be for?" I ask.

"Babel and Shadow Sight are two projects that Bruce had told me to save up for roughly five years ago. Babel has seen a few withdrawals from Mr. Wayne over the years, each time being roughly ten to twenty thousand removed to fund his gadgets, but now all $5 million dollars from the Babel account and the $7 million in Shadow Sight's account have both disappeared. The digital footprints of whoever had stolen the money are untraceable." Lucius explains.

"Hmm. I'll bring this to Oracle to investigate further," I tell him.

"Good luck," Lucius says. "If Bruce is alive, I trust that you will find him."

* * *

Thank you for those who support this story, I will try working on this as much as I can. Each chapter of After Arkham Knight will be narrated by a different character, and there will be more besides the investigation of where Bruce Wayne could have gone after the Knightfall Protocol, such as what happens to the Gotham gangs after Bruce 'dies.'


	3. Chapter 3

**Dick Grayson POV**

Clark's talk with Lucius was next to useless, as the file names Babel and Shadow Sight were too vague to truly yield any insight into Bruce's whereabouts. He wouldn't be careless to leave behind any digital footprints, so there was no way to trace how the money had been withdrawn, leaving us to predict the meaning of the sub accounts.

Babel is the name of Babylon in Hebrew text, and there wasn't really much to go off of there. Babylon was considered the Holy City of Mesopotamia, but there wasn't really an explanation for Bruce to reference the city. On the other hand, there was the other sub-account, Shadow Sight, but from the way it sounds, the sub-account was probably to fund some type of vision enhancement for Batman's cowl.

Back at square one and with no ideas as to what to do next, I'm given no other choice but to tell Babs and Tim and see what insight they have on the matter. I had decided to meet them at the Wayne Manor ruins.

"So what do we know now, Dick? Any leads?" Tim asks.

"There's been money withdrawn from two of Bruce's sub-accounts, under the names of 'Babel' and 'Shadow Sight,'" I tell them.

"He might have faked his death, and it isn't the most questionable action for him to take after what happened to him," Barbara says. "The Batman can't be that easy to kill; he probably needed some money."

"Do we know what the two sub-accounts were intended to fund?" Tim asks.

"No," I say bluntly. "Just the codenames. No specifics."

"You know," Barbara say, "I can track from where it was withdrawn. Bruce might have wiped some traces, but not all."

"If anyone can trace the withdrawal, it's Barbara," Tim says. "I do have an idea of what Babel may be used for. Did Bruce ever tell you about the Tower of Babel?"

"He never brought up the story, but I know it," I answer.

"It's not just the story. It's the context of the situation in which Bruce told me," Tim says. "When Kara Zor-El, Superman's cousin, first came to Earth, we didn't know if she would pose a threat or not. Bruce told me about the Tower of Babel-a tower built to reach the heavens. He said that the concept of the Tower of Babel was similar to what kind of conflicts we deal with today."

"You mean with metahumans?" Barbara asks.

"Exactly," Tim says. "He says that metahumans try to reach too far to obtain the powers of God."

"That sounds like Bruce," I say. As both a businessman and a vigilante, Bruce was never one to underestimate others.

"It's possible this was a front to develop metahuman-countering tech," Tim suggests.

"And if there's one thing we know about Bruce Wayne, it's that he is very private with what he has planned," Barbara says.

"And we all know he plans for everything," I add. Bruce always had a contingency plan, ranging from his gadgets to his multiple Batcave locations. As a man who could prepare for anything, surely he would have come up with a plan for his identity being revealed.

"How do we even know he wants to be found?" Barbara says, bringing up a good point. Bruce had been fighting crime for the longest time, and now, after being unmasked for the world to see, it only made sense for him to disappear from the public eye.

"He probably took the money to use in some other country where he could become someone else," Tim says, continuing off of what Barbara had said.

"Bruce deserves retirement. All the good he's done for Gotham is priceless; this city could have been torn down multiple times over without Bruce, not to mention, as a humanitarian, he has funded a number of benefits to fund anti-crime campaigns," I say.

"Don't you think that we deserve the right to know if he's still alive?" Tim asks. "We're still his family, we need to know if he's still out there."

"Tim, we should just let this go," I tell him. "If Bruce wanted us to know he was alive, he would have given us a sign by now. Bruce Wayne is dead, we should leave it at that. It's not our place to question him after all he's been through."

"I agree with Dick on this one," Babs says. "Bruce has always made reasonable choices and I trust his judgement. It would just be a waste of effort if we find him when he doesn't want to be found. If we get a sign, we'll go to him, but we don't even know for certain if he's alive."

"So what now?" Tim asks. "Without Bruce, this whole thing, being vigilantes, seems so much more different."

"Jason and I are our own people now, as Red Hood and Nightwing. Without Batman, Robin alone looks less of a threat to criminals than I would've liked to admit back when I was in your position. I'd say you should ditch the Robin costume and become your own hero," I tell him.

Although what I said was the truth, it wasn't all I could have said. Jason and I were different from Bruce, but Tim truly wasn't. As the Red Hood, Jason's ethical code was far worse than Batman's ethics, whereas I tended to me much less brutal than either of them. Tim, however, was the exact same as Bruce, because Batman had been his hero long before he became Robin. Tim looked up to him, idolized him, even, and that was what really made me think he needed to be his own man.

"Things won't ever be the same, but at least we can try to do what's right," Barbara says to him. With a nod, Tim silently walks to the elevator, not a word spoken.

"Just give him time," Barbara says. "He's just in denial."

"I know; he just can't rely on Bruce anymore," I say. "It's like I said. Batman is pretty much dead now anyway."

* * *

This is more of a filler chapter than anything. The explanation of what's happened to Bruce will come up again somewhere along the line, but for now, we're going to really focus on what else is going on in the Arkhamverse at this point in time. Please R&R!


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter is the first to deviate from the search for Batman, and the next few chapters will be about the Batfamily more than Batman himself.

* * *

 **Tim Drake POV**

Nothing too drastic is happening this particular night. So far I've only stopped two muggings and an attempted car theft, but crimes like that are considered low priority in Gotham. As I traverse the rooftops, all I can think of is what Dick said to me, about being my own hero now that Bruce is probably done with crime fighting.

I guess that, as sad as it is to admit, I had always been in the shadow of the Batman. Ever since the first time I had heard of him, I had looked up to the Batman. Bruce made me the happiest kid in the world when he took me under his wing as the Boy Wonder, Robin. My life changed drastically after October 31st, more so than I realized.

Ever since Wayne Manor was destroyed, I had been mocked many times by criminals for what had happened to Batman. Dick is right; just like he became Nightwing, I must become a hero who doesn't need to hide behind his idol.

"Everything okay?" Babs says into the comm. "You seem very quiet. You're not making any clever quips."

"I was thinking about what Dick said, about stepping out of Bruce's shadow, and I think that he's right. It's time I be my own man, while still remembering who I was," I say to her.

"I can't say it didn't take you long enough to realize that Tim," Babs says with a little laugh.

"What do you mean?" I ask her, taken aback by her joking attitude over the situation.

"Well honestly Tim, I've been meaning to tell you that I've often thought about telling you that you have to be your own man, but the truth is that you never really seemed accepting of it. Bruce has always been your hero, and it wasn't my place to tell you that, but now that Batman is gone, I think now is as reasonable a time as any for you to move on," she says to me.

I contemplate what she said and realizes that she's right. I had never prepared for the day the Batman would disappear, but now that he has, I don't know what to do. I was so used to being Robin that I never thought of what would happen when Batman's sidekick would become obsolete.

"Tim? You there?" she asks, a bit worried. "I didn't mean to upset you or anything. It's just something I've had in my mind for a while now."

"No Babs, I see what you mean. I just don't want to let this go, even if I should. There's no point in having Robin around anymore, so I have to be someone else. I have to be something else. I have to be someone that will spark fear in criminals, not ridicule, and no matter how hard I try to be Batman's sidekick, I want you to remind me that I'm not that kid anymore," I tell her, unwavering. If this city isn't going to have its Dark Knight anymore, I was going to give it the next best thing.

"What do you suggest then? How can you change what they think of you?" Babs pushes, but I already know what has to be fixed. I've had a while to mull over what problems I have, and I know exactly what to say.

"They want to laugh at Robin, so I can't be Robin anymore. I have to be able to intimidate them, give them something besides the Batman to fear," I tell her. "I guess I have to start with the suit."

"I have an idea for that already," Babs says. "Swing by the clock tower when you can."

Hopping onto the roof of the clock tower and sliding down the ladder, I find Barbara sitting in front of her various computers, typing away as she scrolls through surveillance footage to pick up the next major crime. She doesn't notice my approach, as she is so caught up in her work, so when I put a hand on her shoulder, she jumps a bit. "Jesus Tim, don't scare me like that!" she shouts, cupping my cheek and giving me a quick kiss.

"So what's this suit you're talking about?" I ask her. She grins and gestures to a wall panel in the corner of the room, typing in a code to open it. I am met with what looks vaguely like a batsuit; the kevlar armor is red, not gray, while the section from the waist down is completely black and the cowl has shaved off ears. The thing that catches me off guard is the emblem in the middle: a shining gold emblem of a robin's head, with dual bandoliers crossed over one another underneath the logo.

"I designed it a while ago for you, Lucius was able to make the suit with resources from Waynetech," she says, a grin on her face. "What do you think?"

"I think I need to buy you a really good Christmas gift to make up for this," I tell her, kissing her cheek. "I love it."

"Yeah, I hoped you would," she says, blushing slightly. "Are you gonna try it on?"

"Definitely, I have to," I tell her, reaching for the suit, but she stops me.

"You need a new codename," she says, but I already knew what I wanted to be called once I looked at the suit.

"I have an idea…"

* * *

The long awaited fourth chapter hath finally arrive! XD I just want to say thank you for all of you who are enjoying/supporting this story, and I want to apologize for my severe writer's block relating to this story and my Star Wars one. I promise that I will try to get to AAK and my Star Wars story a bit more alongside the Justice League story that I have been prioritizing as of late. I want to have all my stories updated at least once every two weeks from now on, so expect some more uploads, and please give me your feedback on what you think so far!


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